16mm Preservation - "I Am the Cheese" - Your help needed! (* unfinished project *)

For anyone who graduated from a U.S. high school in the last 20 years, there’s a good chance that you read Robert Cormier’s novel “I Am the Cheese.” Fewer people have seen the 1983 movie adaptation, however. It was a low budget independent production and, for better or worse, didn’t receive much distribution.

There’s only been one DVD release of this movie, and it’s taken from a poor quality analog master, most likely the same one used to make the old 1980’s VHS releases. I managed to acquire a 16mm print in wonderful quality and would like to get it scanned and released to this group. I’ve been put in touch with someone who can do the scan. The scan itself will be done in UHD resolution with sound, and I plan to put together and release a 1080p version of the movie to anyone who wants it.

Having the scan done will cost $500, which is well below this person’s professional rate, but still more than I can pay for on my own. So, that’s where you come in! Any donations to having this print scanned will be greatly appreciated; even a $10 donation would be helpful.

Now, I know that a quiet psychological thriller like this movie isn’t normally the main genre that we go for on this board, but I think this movie has a greater chance of disappearing in its entirety if we don’t save it. So let’s save it!

Thanks in advance for your help.

P.S.: If anyone’s interested in watching the movie beforehand, it can be found on Amazon Prime Video or on YouTube in its entirety (however, in quite poor versions of course).

I'll put in $25 to help out

Thanks for the support! Any donations at all will be helpful. I plan to have this movie transferred no matter what, the donations will just help ease the financial burden a bit.

So has anyone else donated here?

Asaki said:

mj0012 said:

P.S.: If anyone's interested in watching the movie beforehand, it can be found on Amazon Prime Video or on YouTube in its entirety (however, in quite poor versions of course).

 Last time I checked, it was on Netflix streaming, also.

 Looks like it's not anymore. But then stuff goes on and off Netflix all the time.

Okay, a few updates:

The print has been shipped and is safely in the hands of the person who is going to scan it. With any luck I should have some still images to post in the next week or two.

I've been doing some more research on this movie and the only mentions I can find of it playing theatrically are in the New York Times. There are no references in Variety, the Chicago Sun Times, or any of the other big publications. So I'm thinking it might have only played in New York. If anyone finds any mention of this movie playing in a city other than New York please let me know. 

So far I haven't found anything to indicate that I Am the Cheese was released outside of the U.S. For our non-U.S. members, have you seen any video release of this movie? Was it ever available in your country?

I've collected all of the home video releases now (1 VHS release in 1984, 1 VHS release in 1994, and 1 DVD release in 2005) and they are all definitely made from the same video master. So, in all likelihood this will be the first video transfer of this movie since 1984, and most likely only the second one ever made.

And don't forget, it's not too late to donate! You're help is definitely appreciated.

Updates!

The scan should be starting today, so with any luck I'll have a sample to post in the next day or two. 

I was finally able to nail down the theatrical release for this movie, and it played for 8 days on 1 screen in 1 theater in New York City in November, 1983. So the number of people that saw this in widescreen would be extremely low, and this release will be the first widescreen video transfer that anyone's done.

Other exciting news! It turns out there was actually a second movie adaptation of I Am the Cheese in 1992. It was a Canadian - French co-production called "Lapse of Memory." It never came out in the U.S. but got released in Canada and a large chunk of Europe (UK, France, Germany, probably other countries as well.) It doesn't seem to have a DVD release (or even laserdisc that I could tell) but I did manage to get a copy of the Canadian VHS tape that I'll be capturing and including as a special feature with I Am the Cheese.

And to all of you who have been kind enough to pledge donations - thank you so much! I'll be needing to make the second payment for the scan in the next week or so, so I would appreciate it if you could send in your donations as soon as possible. In case anyone doesn't have my email address for PayPal, just let me know!

And of course it's never too late to make a new donation as well.